While talks between the main Sudanese rebel organisation and the government continue full steam ahead, there is no end in sight to the crisis in Darfur, writes Gamal Nkrumah Peace talks between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) -- the country's most powerful and influential armed opposition group -- resumed on Tuesday in Kenya. The southern Sudanese-based SPLA and the Islamist government in Khartoum have pledged to sign a final and comprehensive peace deal before the end of the year. The two sides are under intense pressure to end the conflict in southern Sudan that has claimed the lives of more than two million Sudanese and rendered some four million people homeless. The search for a final and comprehensive peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the SPLA comes at a time when fighting has once again erupted between southern Sudanese militias and splinter-groups of the SPLA. The recent violence is centred around the oil fields in southern Sudan, especially in Upper Nile province, and threatens to spill over into other regions. Meanwhile in Cairo, members of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Sudan's largest umbrella opposition organisation which brings together the mainly northern Sudanese political parties and the SPLA, are preparing for talks with the Sudanese government. NDA Chairman Mohamed Othman Al-Mirghani announced that talks on the political future of Sudan will resume next week. "Topping the agenda at next week's talks will be political reform in Sudan, the return of multiparty democracy and the democratisation of the institutions of the state," Farouk Abu Eissa, former head of the Cairo-based Arab Lawyers Union and official spokesman for the NDA, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The Cairo-based Abu Eissa also stressed that a complete overhaul of the Sudanese army and security apparatus is on the cards, as are measures to ensure the independence of the judiciary and its complete separation from the executive branch of the state. Ironically, reports indicate that tensions within the SPLA and factional infighting among independent militias have intensified as the parties near their target of clinching a final peace deal. This development has focussed attention on the need to include other opposition groups not directly under SPLA control in the Sudanese peace process. The Naivasha Accords and the Machakos Protocols governing the Sudanese peace process, which both the Sudanese government and the SPLA have in principle accepted as blueprints for charting Sudan's political future, envisage a role, albeit a small one, for non-SPLA political groups in southern Sudan. And both agreements urge the active participation of all political forces across the country. The Machakos Protocols stipulate a new constitution under which southern Sudanese will enjoy self-rule for a six-year transitional period, before deciding in a referendum whether to secede or remain part of Sudan. Other key features of the agreement include the creation of a federal system of government and the lifting of Sharia law in the southern third of Sudan, where the population is mainly Christian and animist. If the Machakos process is advancing smoothly, there has been distinctly less progress in the Abuja talks between the Sudanese government on the one hand, and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), both of which are active in the Darfur region, on the other. The SLA and JEM now say they want to emulate the SPLA and strike a similar deal with the Sudanese government. However, UN special envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk, who visited Cairo last week, warned that there were many hurdles ahead in the case of Darfur. The talks are currently stalled due to disagreements over security issues. Pronk told Al-Ahram Weekly that it was the SLA that was responsible for the latest wave of violence in Darfur. He said that the Sudanese government had shown restraint over the past few weeks, but unfortunately, irresponsible elements within the SLA had reignited the fighting. According to Pronk, the JEM has not taken part in the latest round of violence. Pronk also warned that the 4,500-strong African Union (AU) force in Darfur is insufficient to keep the peace. The continental body, which groups together 53 states, is sponsoring the Abuja peace talks, but it suffers from a critical shortage of funds. Pronk appealed to the international community to provide the necessary financial assistance to strengthen the AU peace- keeping force in Darfur. He stressed that the role of the international community should be to provide financial, political and moral support for the AU, and came out against direct international military intervention. In Pronk's view, the AU monitoring force in Darfur is quite capable of carrying out its mission, even though it should ideally be doubled in size in order to be more effective. He stressed, however, that the troops on the ground should always be African. The recent intensification of fighting in Darfur coincided with the release this week of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on the state of the Sudanese economy. While economic activity has been badly hit by the conflicts in both Darfur and southern Sudan, the report described the recent performance of the Sudanese economy as better than expected, and forecast a seven per cent growth rate over the next year. However, the IMF cautioned that the Sudanese economy will need significant external investment in order to finance reconstruction, given that it has already exceeded its internal capacity. The Sudanese economy has been buoyed up this year by the strength of the oil price. But international humanitarian agencies warn that the country will still need at least $1.5 billion for emergency relief in Darfur to resolve the humanitarian crisis there.
